ATF announces partnership with Wichita State to fight gun crimes

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) was at Wichita State University on Monday to announce a partnership a partnership to fight gun crimes across the U.S.

Last June, the ATF said it would be establishing a Crime Gun Intelligence Center of Excellence, an endeavor projected to create 100 jobs.

“The future against fighting violent crime in this country is going to come straight through Wichita and specifically through Wichita State,” said ATF Director Steven Dettelbach.

The center will not only serve as a national model of support to law enforcement agencies across the U.S., but it will also provide unique applied learning opportunities to WSU students, including teaching them to process evidence and generate intelligence, as well as how to use the cutting-edge investigative processes now seen in the criminal justice field.

“It’s pleasing to me when we bring a program to Wichita State and we’re doing something at Wichita State that increases the opportunity for or students,” said Sen. Jerry Moran. “And we’re not only educating students but creating career opportunities for them here.”

The Center of Excellence will serve as a second National Correlation Center for the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network. NIBIN is the only national network that allows for the 3D imaging and comparison of ballistic evidence recovered from crime scenes. The current NIBIN National Correlation and Training Center, located in Huntsville, Ala., conducts approximately 1,700 correlations per day for law enforcement agencies nationwide, according to the ATF.

“We’re trying to catch trigger pullers and shooters who are terrorizing communities all of the United States,” said Dettelbach. “It’s essential to solving federal firearm crimes but it also prevents future crimes.”

The Center of Excellence will provide a various trainings in CGI. It will also serve as a national academy for the training of ATF’s Intelligence Research Specialists. These specialists serve as ATF’s primary source of intelligence research and evaluate data to generate leads for special agents and industry operations investigators.

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